Fungi treated with small chemicals exhibit increased antimicrobial activity against facultative bacterial and yeast pathogens.

ABSTRACT: For decades, fungi have been the main source for the discovery of novel antimicrobial drugs. Recent sequencing efforts revealed a still high number of so far unknown "cryptic" secondary metabolites. The production of these metabolites is presumably epigenetically silenced under standard laboratory conditions. In this study, we investigated the effect of six small mass chemicals, of which some are known to act as epigenetic modulators, on the production of antimicrobial compounds in 54 spore forming fungi. The antimicrobial effect of fungal samples was tested against clinically facultative pathogens and multiresistant clinical isolates. In total, 30 samples of treated fungi belonging to six different genera reduced significantly growth of different test organisms compared to the untreated f

SUBMITTER: Zutz C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4119895 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature